Top 10 Reasons to be thankful for Stomach Flu--lol!!!

You know how people are always saying that we need to find the "good" in things? Well, as I was finishing up my neverending clean-up from our bout with stomach flu this past week, I decided that there were, in fact, a few positive aspects to having the entire contents of your stomach, colon and intestines launched out of your body in just a few short hours, thereby leaving you weak, exhausted, and not able to eat real food for nearly a week thereafter. So I thought I'd share those with you so that next time you, in fact, get to experience this great joy in life, you too can appreciate it as much as I do. ;D Jen's Top Ten Reasons to be Thankful for getting the Stomach Flu: Ok, here we go............. # 10. Motivation to clean every door knob, light switch and handrail in the entire house. # 9. Doing laundry suddenly becomes a priority. You get every single solitary thing in the house that has been touched within the last 5 days washed including, sheets, comforters, coats, hats, gloves, rugs in the bathroom that were puked on, pillows on the couch, and couch cover (in my case) # 8. Getting a jump start on your weight loss program # 7. Saving money on groceries b/c you are eating Ramen noodles and crackers for nearly an entire week. # 6. When it's over, you do not take feeling relatively healthy for granted for many weeks # 5. Getting unsolicited cuddle time with your kids # 4. Having your husband wait on you hand and foot # 3. Getting to eat unlimited popsicles to stay "hydrated" (as instructed by the doctor.) # 2. Having an excuse to lay in bed and watch movies/TV for nearly an entire day without anyone expecting anything from you. And the #1 reason to be thankful for the stomach flu.................................................. drum roll please...... FREE COLON CLEANSE!!!!! :) HA-HA!!!

Stomach Bug

This post is very graphic, so DO NOT READ IT if you have a weak stomach. This isn't really a readworthy blog post necessarily to share it's just a recollection for my memory b/c it's something that has never happened to us before and I find it almost comical looking back on the past 4 days. On Monday everything was fine...Braden and I ate lunch as normal...went about our day and around 2:30 I decided to take my vitamins. When I wasn't able to take all of them because I felt "full" all of a sudden, I got a little concerned. We had plans to go to Party City to get some gag gifts for a Shelly who is turning 40 this month and I was supposed to go to Bunko Tues night and give them to her. Well, as we are at Party City about 3:00, my stomach is really starting to hurt at this point and Braden also told me his stomach was hurting. (also out of the blue) At this point I am getting a little nervous. We head out of there and go to Walmart nearby to run in and get a card. As I am walking towards the checkout lane, the school calls and tells me that Ben has just thrown up and they did not want to send him on the bus home. It all became crystal clear to me by this point--we were all sick. So I jump in the car (20 minutes from the school and it was 3:30 and he gets out at 3:45) and we head to the school. When I get there, Ben is laying on the bench and he looks very bad. She told me he had emptied the contents of his stomach in her trash can--joy! Well, he starts moaning and squirming on the bench and instead of taking him to the car, I ask him to go in to the bathroom if he needs to throw up again before we leave. He goes in there and is crying and moaning is saying he doesn't want to throw up. He plopped himself on the floor beside the stool and layed against the wall. He looked like death. MEanwhile, my stomach is really beginning to hurt at this point and I tell the nurse Braden and I are going to go across the hallway to the bathroom there. I do, and I go to the bathroom then Braden says his stomach hurst SOOOOO bad, so he gets up on the toilet and sits.....and sits........and sits.......and sits.......and meanwhile all the teachers and workers are leaving the school and they are turning off all the lights and here sits Braden.......and sits......and I am feeling worse by the minute. I go back in to check on Ben and he is laying asleep on the floor in the bathroom-----YUCCCCCCCKKKKK!!!!! I am naucious just at THAT thought....can't get Braden off the pot....every time I try to coax him off telling him we can go at home he starts crying and saying, "NO MOMMY, my tummy hurts!!!" I am sooooooo frustrated and just plain disgusted at the whole situation. Finally after being at the school until nearly 5:00 (one hour and 15 minutes after school had let out) I told Braden he had to be done. Collected both of my boys along with a 4 bagged Walmart puke bag the nurse had graciously made for me and made a run for it. JUst about 50 yards away from the school Ben asked me to stop the car b/c he thought he was going to hurl... after about 5 minutes of sitting there with the door open and my stomach hurting worse and worse, I told him just to hold the bag to his mouth and we were going to try to make it home. We got home--amazingly--i was praying!!! and we got inside. Braden started wailing as I was taking his coat off that his stomach hurt. I got him upstairs to the bathroom potty and he sat on it for a few minutes. Andy came out to help me, got a bowl for Ben who had collapsed into his bed, and was going back and forth with me from Braden to Ben. He happened to catch Ben throwing up in the bowl just minutes after we got home and then I went down to get some towels and he had gone in with Braden who was still wailing--then I heard it--the contents of his stomach in the bowl I had taken into him. I went to get more towels and a cup to rinse with and then it was back to the bathroom for me too. A couple more times in the bathroom for me and then by 6:30 I was emptying my stomach. Andy ran from person to person for about 6 hours as the kids wanted Daddy there to "supervise" the vomit process (you know how it goes when you're sick, you just have to share it with someone! :) but not me, I just wanted to be left to myself. I had it coming out both ends and all I wanted is for him to come and take the bowl from my hands so I could get up off the toilet!!! UGH! What a day--and a MONDAY nonetheless! Great way to start off the week. Anyway, we all got settled down around 1 am and fell asleep, but Andy's had just started. He sat up in the chair downstairs since Braden was on the couch and Ben was in the recliner and I was in the bed. He said he didn't sleep most of the night, but didn't end up really getting anything out either way. He just hurt like mad and was horribly nauseaus! Well, we all layed around on Tuesday. I felt pretty good and got immediately to scouring dishes and laundry and toilets and anything and everything I could get my hands on. It seems like EVERY time this stomach bug goes through our house, we seem to feel good for a day and then get it again, so I was trying to avoid that happening. MEanwhile, Andy sleeps ALL day long. Around 9:00 I go to put Ben to bed and Andy is moaning and complaining, and breathing heavy and it just goes on and on and on. I go in and ask him what's wrong and he say it feels like someone is stabbing him in the back....chest.....pain down around his outer rib cage under his arm pits....and he is having a hard time getting a deep breath. Well, I try popping his back, more gatorade and water, and we explore muscle relaxer options....think it may be trapped gas so he takes an Anticid (natural antacid) and this goes on for about an hour. Well, he is getting very nervous and anxious and told me that it felt like someone was stepping on his chest....and my red flag went up and I notice he is beginning to panic, and so am i a little at this point, so I call my friend (who is a Dr.) Kandice and ask her opinion. She advised that if he was having a crushing feeling in his chest that he really needed to go to the Emergency room. Well, I now have both boys asleep (Ben had fallen asleep in his room with his light on -waiting for me) and Braden is asleep on the couch in the living room, so I am like--"What do I do?" So I called 911 and had an ambulance take him. All these guys show up and are traipsing through the house with my two children asleep only 10-15 feet from them and I am praying they don't wake up and get worried and start crying at seeing their Daddy taken away in an ambulance. They didn't wake up and immediately when he was put in the ambulance, my kind neighbor came over to ask if I wanted her to stay with the boys so I could go to the hospital. I told her I didn't want to expose her to what we had and that I would figure it out. I then called Don and Carleen (andy's folks) to let them know what was going on and they offered to go to the hospital with him. What a blessing that was!!!!! I chose not to call my folks, simply b/c I knew that after talking to the paramedics and them telling me it didn't look like it had anything to do with his heart, that they would only be worried and plus, they were most likely already in bed because my Dad had also had the stomach flu the night before. Goodness!!! (Btw, my brother, nephew and sister-in-law all got it too) :( I know we had no way of knowing that we would have it on Monday and were most likely contageous on Sunday, but it still makes me feel bad knowing that if we hadn't had them over on Sunday that they probably wouldn't have gotten sick. I guess we can't live our lives in a bubble though-huh! Anyway, I was so nervous after Andy was taken away. When I am nervous or anxious I CLEAN so I began cleaning the house like a MAD WOMAN! I took our bedding all off and threw it in the wash, I cleaned the bathrooms scoured the floors, took ALL the laundry downstairs and got all the dishes in the dishwasher and scoured the kitchen counters. I was moving at lightning speed. I got a call from Andy telling me that they said he was most likely severly dehydrated and gave him some IV fluids and some potassium (because that tested low) and a RX for a muscle relaxer. He was back at the house by midnight (only 2 hrs after he'd left) wow! I was impressed! I had them take him to Menorah Hospital so that was quite a drive so he was in and out very quickly for a hospital. Praise the Lord!!! The next day, I woke up feeling awful again but not from the Stomach flu, apparently since I'd had my tooth taken out the Wed before and started on antibiotics and wasn't able to take them on MOnday and Tuesday, that my infection from my absessed tooth had reared its ugly head again. My whole left side of my throat hurt and my nose felt like a horrible sinus infection. I was in a wretched mood and just felt lousy! I ended up sleeping til 2 pm. Then Andy's folks offered to go pick up Andy's prescription for us and bring it to the house (they also brought us some gatorade.) Wow, we are so blessed to have them so closeby!!! All in all, it's been an interesting 3-4 days. Today was a back to semi-normal day for me and the boys. Andy went out to try to work some but still feels icky. Hopefully he will be better by the weekend! We have never had an episode of stomach flu this bad in our house especially when 3 of the 4 were throwing up at the same time. I have to say in the long run, I'd much rather have it that way so we can get it over with! The other good thing is that the 3 of us started it in the daytime which rarely happens with us, so that part was definately good too that way we were able to get a lot of rest that night. Poor Andy though. He was put through it. He is definately earning some jewels in his crown in heaven! He is such a blessing to me and our boys!!! Praise the Lord that hopefully this week won't repeat itself anytime soon!!!!! Ok, onto more fun posts... :)